During his legislative career, Henry Waxman has voted on a variety of key pieces
of legislation as follows:

Military,
Intelligence, and National Security Issues:

against
a 1999 proposal “to declare it to be the policy of the United
States to deploy a national missile defense”

in favor
of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001, which proposed to ease restrictions
on government wiretap and surveillance operations; permit government
officials to share with one another the information they obtain from
such surveillance operations; strengthen security along the
U.S./Canadian border; and deny U.S. visas to suspected
money-launderers

against
a 2006 amendment which called for allowing the government to use
electronic surveillance to investigate suspected terrorist
operatives

against
a 2007 bill permitting the Director of National Intelligence and the
Attorney General to monitor foreign electronic communications which
were routed through the United States—provided that the purpose of
such monitoring was to obtain "foreign intelligence information"
about suspected terrorists

in favor
of a resolution expressing disapproval of President Bush's 2007 decision to move ahead with the so-called troop
"surge"—the deployment of some 21,500 additional U.S.
soldiers in an effort to quell the violent insurgents in Iraq

in
favor of a 2007 proposal to expedite the transfer of all
prisoners who, at that time, were being held in the Guantanamo Bay
detention center

in
favor of a 2007 proposal to begin dramatically reducing the
presence of U.S. troops in Iraq by April 1, 2008

in
favor of a 2010 bill requiring a timetable for U.S. military
withdrawal from Afghanistan

in
favor of a 2011 bill calling for the swift withdrawal of U.S.
troops from Afghanistan

Immigration,
Nationality, and English-Language Issues:

in
favor of deleting, from a 1996 bill, a provision to bar illegal
aliens from receiving public assistance

against
a 1996 proposal “to declare English as the official language of the
Government of the United States”

against
a 1996 bill to increase border-patrol personnel and to adopt other
measures designed to decrease illegal immigration into the
U.S.

against
the Real ID Act, which proposed, in 2005, to set minimal security
requirements for state driver licenses and identification
cards

against
a 2005 bill calling for the construction of some 700 miles of fencing
along America's southern border; the establishment of a system
requiring business owners to verify the legal status of all their
employees; the detention of any person attempting to enter the U.S.
illegally; and an increase in the penalties on anyone attempting to
smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S.

against
a 2006 bill authorizing the construction of 700 miles of
double-layered fencing between the U.S. and Mexico

against
a 2006 proposal to grant state and local officials the authority to
investigate, identify, and arrest illegal immigrants

in
favor of a 1994 proposal to substitute life imprisonment for the
death penalty in all cases

Welfare Issues:

against
two separate bills (in February
1995
and December
1995)
designed to move people off the welfare rolls and into paying jobs.
(These bills used financial incentives to discourage out-of-wedlock
pregnancies; prohibited states from providing additional cash
assistance to families that had given birth to additional children
while on public assistance; required states to limit their welfare
benefits to five years per family; denied assistance for ten years
to any person who had fraudulently sought to obtain assistance in
more than one state; denied assistance to fugitive felons and parole
and probation violators;
and denied assistance
to alcoholics and drug addicts.)

Housing Issues:

in
favor of a 2007 bill to establish
an Affordable Housing Fund to provide grants that make rent and home
ownership more affordable for low-income families

Election
Law Issues:

in
favor of a 2002 campaign finance reform bill which put
restrictions
on paid advertising during the weeks just prior to political
elections, and tightly regulated the amount of money which political
parties and candidates could accept from donors

Gun
Rights Issues:

against
two separate bills – in 2003 and
2005
– to ban lawsuits against gun manufacturers as punishment for
violence that is committed with guns

against
a 2008 bill that would allow Washington, DC residents to possess
firearms in their homes, and would repeal the DC ban on possession of
semiautomatic weapons

Health Care Issues:

in
favor of a 2007 bill
to expand coverage of the Children's Health Insurance
Program

in
favor of a 2009 bill
to expand coverage of the Children's Health Insurance Program

in
favor of a 2000 amendment to permit federal funding for abortion
procedures

against two separate bills – in 1999
and 2004 –
which
proposed to make it an added criminal offense for someone to
injure or kill a fetus while carrying out a crime against a
pregnant woman

against separate proposals – in 2005
and 2006
– to prohibit the transportation of a minor across state lines to
obtain an abortion without a parent's (or a legal guardian's)
consent

against
the Abortion Pain Bill in 2006, which mandated that abortion
providers, prior to performing an abortion on a fetus older than 20
weeks, inform the mother that: (a) the fetus might feel pain during
the procedure, and (b) the use of some pain-reducing drugs may
have health risks associated with them

against
a 2009 bill to prohibit federal funds from
being used to pay for abortions